FirstHand Alliance: Funding, Team & Investors

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FirstHand Alliance: Funding, Team & Investors | Startup Intros

About

Firsthand offers a comprehensive career engagement platform that facilitates personalized guidance and industry insights. The company provides a robust ecosystem for career seekers, integrating mentorship connections, detailed company rankings, curated job and internship listings, and a wealth of career advice resources. Its core approach centers on leveraging authentic "firsthand experiences" to inform career decisions and professional development, serving as a bridge between aspiring talent and established professionals or organizations.

The company originated in May 2010, founded by Harvard Business School alumni Fredrik Marø, Marc Weiner, and Dan Levy, alongside Wharton graduate Christine Apold. This team recognized the fragmented nature of career exploration and mentorship, conceiving a structured platform to democratize access to valuable, real-world professional perspectives. Their collective background informed the creation of a system designed to scale the impact of individual career guidance.

Firsthand serves a diverse user base including students, job-seekers, and professionals, often partnering with educational institutions to empower their students. The platform also assists employers in identifying informed candidates who understand specific industries and roles. Its long-term vision is to equip individuals with the knowledge and connections necessary to confidently pursue fulfilling career paths, ensuring everyone has access to the critical insights needed for successful professional navigation.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Sep 1, 2025	Distyl AI	$180.0M Series B	—	Altimeter Capital, C2 Investment, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coatue, Dell Technologies Capital, DST Global, Vinod Khosla
Sep 1, 2025	Monarcha	$500K Seed	—	Oceans, Spark Capital, WorkLife Ventures, Y Combinator, Aaron Skonnard, Derrick Li, Emmett Shear, Guillaume Roux-Romestaing, Michael Ma
Sep 1, 2025	Drug Hunter	$6.0M Seed	—	Teamworthy Ventures
Aug 1, 2025	Eight Sleep	$100.0M Series D	—	8090 Industries, Afore Capital, Array Ventures, AV8 Ventures, C2 Investment, Felicis Ventures, Founders Fund, Greycroft, Harrison Metal, Investo, Lux Capital, M12, Marlinspike, NFX, Plug & Play Ventures, RX3 Growth Partners, True Ventures, UpHonest Capital, VZVC, Xfund, Y Combinator, Eric Futoran, Patrick S. Chung, Ron Pragides, Steve Norall
Jun 1, 2025	Multiplier	$28.0M Series A	—	DCM, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Jun 1, 2025	Pokee AI	$12.0M Seed	—	Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nepenthe Capital, Point72 Ventures, Susa Ventures, Walden International, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures)
Jun 1, 2025	Ubyx	$10.0M Seed	Mike Giampapa	Citi Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Cyberstarts VC, Haun Ventures, New Form Capital, Pantera Capital, The Hit Forge, Tiger Global Management, Tioga Capital Partners, Balaji Srinivasan, Kevin Weil, Leopold Gasteen, Ron Pragides, Boku, Bridget Harris, LayerZero Labs, Mirana Ventures, Monerium, Paxos, Payoneer, VanEck
May 1, 2025	Recraft	$30.0M Series B	Accel	Array Ventures, AV8 Ventures, C2 Investment, Greycroft, Harrison Metal, Investo, Khosla Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Plug & Play Ventures, True Ventures, UpHonest Capital, Voyager Ventures, Xfund, Y Combinator, Akshay Kothari, Amit Gudka, Dharmesh Shah, Elad Gil, Hanno Renner, Nico Rosberg, Patrick S. Chung, Steve Norall, Nat Friedman, Madrona Venture Group
May 1, 2025	Sentora	$25.0M Series A	—	Cyberstarts VC, Haun Ventures, New Form Capital, Pantera Capital, The Hit Forge, Tioga Capital Partners, Balaji Srinivasan, Kevin Weil, Mike Giampapa
May 1, 2025	Cerby	$40.0M Series B	Lance Matthews	Alumni Ventures, AV8 Ventures, Bowery Capital, DTCP, Innovation Endeavors, Matrix, Tiffany Luck, Partech Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, David Dubick, Yann LeCun, Michael Brown, Okta Ventures, Yousuf Khan, Salesforce Ventures
Mar 1, 2025	Artifact	$500K Seed	—	Oceans, Spark Capital, WorkLife Ventures, Y Combinator, Aaron Skonnard, Derrick Li, Emmett Shear, Michael Ma, Paul Graham
Mar 1, 2025	Freed	$30.0M Series A	Sequoia Capital	Array Ventures, AV8 Ventures, BoxGroup, C2 Investment, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, General Catalyst, Greycroft, Harrison Metal, Investo, Next Play Ventures, Plug & Play Ventures, Susa Ventures, True Ventures, UpHonest Capital, Xfund, Y Combinator, Patrick S. Chung, Scott Belsky, Steve Norall
Feb 1, 2025	Fay	$50.0M Series B	Goldman Sachs	Alt Capital, Astanor Ventures, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Footwork, Forerunner Ventures, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Point72 Ventures, Rainfall Ventures, Susa Ventures, Twelve Below, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures)
Feb 1, 2025	Lambda	$480.0M Series D	Paul T., Willow Garage	Also Capital, Alumni Ventures, Avalanche VC, Blockchain Capital, Caffeinated Capital, Daft Capital, Eclipse Ventures, Founders Fund, Greylock, Initialized Capital, Innovation Endeavors, Invariantes Fund, K2 Global, Lux Capital, Paradox Capital, Saga, Stellar Capital, The Hit Forge, Trajectory Ventures, Virginia Venture Partners, Y Combinator, Adam D'Angelo, Amjad Masad, Austin Ogilvie, Bob Young, Georges Harik, Greg Brockman, Jeff Bezos, Jeff Hammerbacher, Joao Otavio Oliverio, Justin Mateen, Lukas Biewald, Mattia Astori, Sahin Boydas, Sohila Zadran, Vineet Jain, William Miller, Andrej Karpathy, 1517 Fund, ARK Invest, Crescent Cove Advisors, Fincadia Advisors, G Squared, In-Q-Tel, KHK & Partners, NVIDIA, Pegatron Group, Supermicro, U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, Wistron, Wiwynn
Jan 1, 2025	Clutch	$65.0M Series B	Alkeon Capital, McLaughlin Ventures	BoxOne Ventures, Buckley Ventures, Matt Ocko, Earl Grey Capital, Endeavor Venture Funds, Goat Capital, GSV Ventures, LAUNCH, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Maven Ventures, Pario Ventures, Runa Capital, Shaan's All Access Fund, Aaron King, Aaron Rankin (Sprout Social), Adam Michalski, Bill Tai, Chris Fanini, Daniel Kan, Emmett Shear, Immad Akhund, Jason Hunt, Jay Jamison, Kyle Vogt, Mikhail Seregine, Oleg Rogynskyy, Ted Serbinski, Vikas Gupta, Viral Bajaria, Vishal Rao
Nov 1, 2024	Leland	$12.0M Series A	Forerunner Ventures	Altair Capital Management, Avalon Ventures, Contrary Capital, Dream Machine, General Catalyst, Crystal Huang, Helium-3 Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Liquid 2 Ventures, Magnify Ventures, NFX, Oceans, Polychain Capital, RTP Global, SNR, Sound Ventures, Spark Capital, Timespan Ventures, WorkLife Ventures, Y Combinator, Derrick Li, Eduardo Haber, Emmett Shear, Guillaume Roux-Romestaing, Justin Timberlake, Louis Beryl, Mark Pincus, Matt Bellamy, Michael Ma, Stacy Brown-Philpot
Nov 1, 2024	Civic Marketplace	$3.0M Seed	—	Alumni Ventures, Avalanche VC, Blockchain Capital, Flourish Ventures, Greylock, Initialized Capital, Innovation Endeavors, Left Lane Capital, Amjad Masad, Bob Young, Jeff Hammerbacher
Oct 1, 2024	Bluesky	$15.0M Series A	Blockchain Capital	Alumni Ventures, Avalanche VC, Greylock, Initialized Capital, Innovation Endeavors, SOSV, Amjad Masad, Bob Young, Jeff Hammerbacher, Amir Shevat, Joseph Beda, Alumni Ventures, SevenX, True Ventures
Oct 1, 2024	Tako	$6.0M Seed	Abstract Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Ribbit Capital, A Capital	Kevin Hartz, A* Capital (A Star Capital), Alumni Ventures, AngelList Syndicator, Autopilot Fund, Bain Capital Ventures, Benchmark, CapitalX, Coalition Operators, Cyberstarts VC, FirstMark Capital, Founders Fund, Haun Ventures, Kepler Operator’s Fund, LGF, Liquid 2 Ventures, Logos Labs, Long Journey Ventures, Lux Capital, Monochrome Capital, New Form Capital, NFX, No Label Ventures, Not Boring Capital, OCA Ventures, Pantera Capital, Polygon, Project A, Prototype Capital, Sarona Ventures, Sequoia Capital, SRB Ventures, Starship Ventures, Stratus Ventures, Susa Ventures, Techstars, The Club, The Hit Forge, Tiger Global Management, Tioga Capital Partners, Village Global, Vitalize Venture Group, Y Combinator, Abe Burns, Adam Jackson, Balaji Srinivasan, Chris Cheng, Christian Reber, Cristina Cordova, D’Arcy Coolican, Dharmesh Shah, Fareed Mosavat, Felipe Navio, Frederic Kerrest, Gil Elbaz, Gokul Rajaram, Guillermo Rauch, Jan Deepen, Job Van Der Voort, Johnny Boufarhat, Julian Shapiro, Kanjun Qiu, Kevin Weil, Koen Bok, Mandeep Singh, Mark Ghermezian, Mike Giampapa, Paul Yacoubian, Richard Burton, Scott Belsky, Stanley Druckenmiller, Stefan Jeschonnek, ONEVC
Oct 1, 2024	Agency AI	$12.0M Seed	—	Afore Capital, Altimeter Capital, Array Ventures, C2 Investment, Chingona Ventures, CoFound Partners, Conviction Partners, Divergent Capital, Index Ventures, LAUNCH, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matchstick Ventures, Origin Ventures, Propeller VC, Renegade Partners, Sequoia Capital, SignalFire, Techstars, WestWave Capital, Gautam Gupta, Reshma Saujani, Varsha Rao
Sep 1, 2024	Overstand Labs	$500K Seed	—	Oceans, Spark Capital, WorkLife Ventures, Y Combinator, Aaron Skonnard, Derrick Li, Emmett Shear, Guillaume Roux-Romestaing, Michael Ma
Sep 1, 2024	Distyl AI	$20.0M Series A	Lightspeed Venture Partners	Aglae Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Jana Messerschmidt, C2 Investment, Earl Grey Capital, Hyper, Innovation Endeavors, KRM Interests LLC, Lerer Hippeau, Northzone, Placeholder, Redpoint Ventures, Sarona Ventures, Seven Seven Six, The Hit Forge, Volt Capital, Weekend Fund, Y Combinator, Balaji Srinivasan, Ben Davenport, Ben Porterfield, Casey Neistat, DROdio - Daniel R. Odio, Florian Huber, Fredrik Hjelm, Paul Yacoubian, Sahil Lavingia, Sahin Boydas, Scott Belsky, Varsha Rao, Nat Friedman, Coatue, Dell Technologies Capital, Khosla Ventures
Aug 1, 2024	Vybe	$5.0M Seed	Stellation Capital	75 & Sunny, Airtree Ventures, Alumni Ventures, C2 Investment, Conviction Partners, Cyberstarts VC, Embedded Ventures, Founders Fund, Haun Ventures, Lightbank, NEO, New Form Capital, Pantera Capital, Paradigm, Pear VC, Polygon, Precursor Ventures, Preston-Werner Ventures, Stellar Capital, T-Bird Capital, The Hit Forge, Tioga Capital Partners, Anthemos Georgiades, Balaji Srinivasan, bill weathersby, Elad Gil, Henry Davis, John Collison, Karim Atiyeh, Lex Bayer, Mike Giampapa, Surahbi Gupta, Tony Xu
Jul 1, 2024	Airfold	$4.0M Seed	—	1984 Ventures, 468 Capital, Anorak Ventures, Defy Partners, LG Technology Ventures, Matrix, NewView Capital, Partech Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, Y Combinator, Jonathan Siegel, Kenji Niwa, Koichiro Yoshida, Paul Naphtali, Yoshinari Yoshikawa
May 1, 2024	Fay	$20.0M Series A	Forerunner Ventures	Alt Capital, Astanor Ventures, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Footwork, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Point72 Ventures, Rainfall Ventures, Susa Ventures, Twelve Below, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures)

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Firsthand Alliance is a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage investments in B2B autonomous agentic AI companies. Their mission is to partner with experienced founders from inception, providing capital and a unique network to accelerate the development of autonomous AI solutions across industries such as healthcare, enterprise software, fintech, and more. The firm typically invests between $100,000 and $5 million, focusing on technology sectors including AI, machine learning, software, and healthcare. Their impact on the startup ecosystem is significant, as they not only fund but also actively support founders through a curated network of industry leaders, fostering innovation in autonomous AI applications[1][6].

Origin Story

Founded in 2022 and based in New York City, Firsthand Alliance was established by a group of founders and executives with backgrounds linked to Salesforce acquisitions. The founding team includes well-respected entrepreneurs and operators who have evolved the firm's focus to become a leading community for ambitious founders building B2B autonomous AI solutions. The firm has grown by leveraging strong ties to software industry leaders and hosting events like the annual Firsthand Homecoming Gala, which connects Salesforce alumni and B2B software leaders to share insights and opportunities[1][6].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Focuses exclusively on inception-stage B2B autonomous agentic AI companies, partnering with experienced founders from day zero.
Network Strength: Strong connections to Salesforce alumni and top B2B software leaders, providing founders access to a powerful ecosystem.
Track Record: Portfolio includes innovative companies such as Eudia (legal AI), CrewAI (multi-agent platforms), Distyl AI (enterprise AI scaling), and Adonis (healthcare revenue automation).
Operating Support: Offers strategic capital alongside operational expertise and community-building events like the AI Agent Conference to foster collaboration and growth[1][6].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Firsthand Alliance is riding the wave of autonomous AI, a transformative trend reshaping industries by enabling AI systems that operate independently and collaboratively. The timing is critical as enterprises increasingly adopt AI-driven automation to improve efficiency and innovation. Market forces such as growing AI adoption, demand for enterprise software innovation, and the rise of agentic AI systems favor Firsthand Alliance’s investment focus. By nurturing early-stage companies in this space, the firm influences the broader ecosystem by accelerating the development and deployment of autonomous AI technologies that could redefine business operations across sectors[1][6].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Firsthand Alliance is poised to deepen its influence as autonomous AI technologies mature and gain wider enterprise adoption. Trends such as AI regulation, ethical AI development, and cross-industry AI integration will shape their portfolio companies' trajectories. The firm’s continued emphasis on community-building and strategic partnerships will likely enhance its role as a key enabler of innovation in B2B autonomous AI. As the autonomous AI market expands, Firsthand Alliance’s unique positioning and network could make it a pivotal player in shaping the future of AI-driven business solutions[1][6].

Sources

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Focuses exclusively on inception-stage B2B autonomous agentic AI companies, partnering with experienced founders from day zero.
Network Strength: Strong connections to Salesforce alumni and top B2B software leaders, providing founders access to a powerful ecosystem.
Track Record: Portfolio includes innovative companies such as Eudia (legal AI), CrewAI (multi-agent platforms), Distyl AI (enterprise AI scaling), and Adonis (healthcare revenue automation).
Operating Support: Offers strategic capital alongside operational expertise and community-building events like the AI Agent Conference to foster collaboration and growth[1][6].

FirstHand Alliance

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